Monday, October 30, 2017

Quinto Real or Le Pays Quint or Kintoa

Quinto Real (French: Le Pays Quint, Basque: Kintoa) is an area on the border between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains, in northeastern Navarre.

The area is part of Spain but is administered by France; the
inhabitants are French citizens by default but have the right to dual
citizenship. Residents pay income tax in France and property taxes in Spain.

The country was long the subject of bloody disputes between
French shepherds of Baïgorry and Spaniards of the Val d ‘Erro.

The Treaty of Bayonne, signed on 2 December 1856, decided on
the territorial distribution and usage of this disputed area.

Until the 1700’s, the Quint country was larger than today,
including the lands of Aldudes of Banca and Urepel, then uninhabited and
undivided. The younger sons of Baïgorry, excluded from the heritage succession
(the Basque tradition ensures the inheritance of the family goods and titles to
the elder man or woman), moved and settled on this territory.

The area is well known for it's specific breed of pigs, related to the pigs of Bigorre.

About Me

Daan Kolthoff is a writer, living between the hills of Wellington, New Zealand and, when not writing, meditating or walking the hills, he is usually researching, reading about or ordering berets from around the world.